777-200LR Flight Test Journal: Archives
20 December 2005
Stamp of approval
Tim Braxmeyer, Maintenance Planning/Quality Supervisor
John Malone, Flight Test Quality Supervisor
In the 777-200LR Flight Test Program, Quality Assurance was the group responsible for developing and verifying compliance to airplane inspection programs supporting both airplanes - WD001 and WD002. We tailored the maintenance and inspection to match the actual flight test operational environment for each airplane. For WD001, testing was intensive and aggressive, while the majority of the WD002 airplane test program was basically straight and level flight operations. These are the same type of maneuvers you'd expect in service, so our oversight didn't need to be as intensive.
WD001's testing was far more stringent and included the "work horse" type of systems and procedures, like with stability and control and auto-lands - the testing that can be pretty hard on the airplane. Tests are rated at different "risk levels" with the highest-risk tests performed off-site at remote locations, such as Edwards Air Force Base, located 100 miles north of Los Angeles, Calif. Many tests also can be weather and condition dependent, which requires traveling to remote areas, like Iceland for crosswinds or Australia for heat. Typically, we develop a thorough pre-flight, post-flight and servicing regiment that we put the airplanes through every night to prepare for the next day's test.
Quality management ensures that type-certified and developmental airplane parts used in flight test are operated in accordance with appropriate established standards. We operate the type-certified systems, parts and components much like an airline. We release the routine scheduled maintenance requirements and exercise unscheduled maintenance for events such as hard or overweight landings, engine chops, blown tires, brake fires, bird strikes or lightning strikes, just to name a few. We do a lot of tests for conditions that will rarely occur to an aircraft in service. For instance, the aircraft will take off at maximum gross weight and the crew will intentionally turn off an engine. The aircraft will prove that with an engine out in this condition it still has the ability to take off and climb.
If you look at the big picture of the 777 program, there really isn't a break in quality involvement from one derivative to the next. In getting ready to flight test the -200LR, we started with lessons learned and all of our experience from past models. In this case, the last program was the -300ER. We are always asking the question, "How can we do things a little better?"
There is a big difference with quality management in a flight test environment compared to an airline's in-service fleet. We use cutting-edge technology everyday. For example, we'll discover there's a problem with a system under development, like if the nose-wheel doors are coming apart in flight. Quality works with manufacturing and engineering during the redesign and manufacturing stages to develop testing procedures that maintain the safe operation of the airplane. The engineering doesn't exist yet to explain the procedure; we have to work it out.
In flight test we want things to fail safely. This environment is where we test to define the parameters and ring out the aircraft problems before type certification. Engineering sets the performance parameters and standards and then develops the testing requirements needed to demonstrate the airplanes capabilities. Quality works with maintenance and engineering to complete the test and demonstrate final compliance.
It's extraordinary playing a part in the continued development of our products. To us, the wonderful part of our work is that the job description can change daily. It is a very fluid, dynamic environment that is so unique in the aviation world. We take a great deal of pride in testing a new model aircraft that symbolizes the talent of so many great minds working toward one goal. We know it's the best job there is at Boeing.